#karan varindani

[ganatunes]

63rd Jio Filmfare Awards 2018: Vidya Balan, Irrfan Khan steal the show

63rd Jio Filmfare Awards 2018 ceremony was held on January 20, 2018, at NSCI Dome in Worli, Mumbai which was hosted by superstar Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar.

The actors of the film fraternity gathered at the industry’s prestigious 63rd Jio Filmfare Awards ceremony  In addition to that, the ceremony witnessed some of the eye-catching performances by  Ayushmann Khurrana, Parineeti Chopra. Ranveer Singh and Akshay Kumar.

While Hindi Medium bagged the Best Film Award. Irrfan Khan won the award for Best Actor in a leading role (male) for Hindi Medium, Vidya Balan’s exemplary performance in Tumhari Sulu made her accomplish the tag for Best Actor In A Leading Role (Female).

Rajkummar Rao got the opportunity to hold the Black Lady twice, one for Best Actor in supporting role for Bareilly ki Barfi and the other one was Critics’ Award for Best Actor (Male) for Trapped. While the teen star Zaira Wasim got the Critics’ Award for Best Actor (Female) for Secret Superstar. Must Read: Aamir Khan’s Secret Superstar creates history, breaks Dangal’s records in China’s Box office

Here is the complete list of popular award winners at 63rd Jio Filmfare Awards 2018:

Best Actor In A Leading Role (Female): Vidya Balan for ‘Tumhari Sulu’

Best Actor In A Leading Role (Male): Irrfan Khan for ‘Hindi Medium’

Critics’ Award for Best Actor (Male): Rajkummar Rao for ‘Trapped’

Best Director: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari for ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’

Critics’ Award for Best Film: ‘Newton

Best Debut Director: Konkona Sensharma for ‘A Death in the Gunj’

Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female): Meher Vij for ‘Secret Superstar’

Best Actor In A Supporting Role (Male): Rajkummar Rao for ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’

Best Dialogue: Hitesh Kewalya for ‘Shubh Mangal Saavdhan’

Best Screenplay: Shubhashish Bhutiani for ‘Mukti Bhavan’

Best Original Story: Amit Masurkar for ‘Newton’

Best Playback Singer (Male): Arijit Singh for ‘Roke na ruke naina’ – ‘Badrinath Ki Dulhania’

Best Background Score: Pritam for ‘Jagga Jasoos’

Best Action: Tom Struthers for ‘Tiger Zinda Hai‘

Best Sound Design: Anish John for ‘Trapped’

The list also includes the other award winners:

Best Film: ‘Hindi Medium’

Critics’ Award for Best Actor (Female): Zaira Wasim for ‘Secret Superstar’

Best Actor (Male) in a Short Film: Jackie Shroff for ‘Khujli’

Best Actor (Female) in a Short Film: Shefali Shah for ‘Juice’

People’s Choice Award for Best Short Film: ‘Anahut’

Best Short Film (Fiction): ‘Juice’

Best Short Film (Non-Fiction): ‘Invisible Wings’

Best Music Album: Pritam for ‘Jagga Jasoos’

Best Playback Singer (Female): Meghna Mishra for ‘Nachdi phira’ – ‘Secret Superstar’

Best Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya for ‘Ullu ka pattha’ – ‘Jagga Jasoos’

Lifetime Achievement Award: Mala Sinha and Bappi Lahiri

Best Choreography: Vijay Ganguly and Ruel Dausan Varindani for ‘Galti se mistake’ – ‘Jagga Jasoos’

Best Cinematography: Sirsha Ray for ‘A Death In The Gunj’

Best Editing: Nitin Baid for ‘Trapped’

[wionews]

In photos: Everything that happened at 63rd Jio Filmfare Awards 2018

Jio Filmfare Awards 2018 on Saturday saw the best of Bollywood coming out to celebrate films, their shared passion for acting and doles of entertainment in Mumbai. 

The night was hosted by 'King of Bollywood' Shah Rukh Khan along with good friend and filmmaker Karan Johar. Shah Rukh also entertained the audience with his opening act of the night. 

Shah Rukh Khan took to the stage and amazed the audience with his amazing performance and hosting skills at #JioFilmfareAwards 🔥✨ pic.twitter.com/bP0zMP2Ao9

— SRK Universe (@SRKUniverse) January 21, 2018

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  Filmfare Ready!!!!! #JioFilmfareAwards #hostingtime pic.twitter.com/BqiephGsxs

— Karan Johar (@karanjohar) January 20, 2018

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The biggest winner of the night was Irrfan Khan starrer "Hindi Medium" which won in categories of Best Film and Best Actor in a Leading Role (Male) that went to Khan for his stellar performance. 

Vidya Balan won Best Actor in a Leading Role (Female) for her role as a middle-aged homemaker who turns into a radio jockey in "Tumhari Sulu". This is Balan's sixth Filmfare award. 

Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari won the Best Director award for "Bareilly Ki Barfi". 

Here is the complete list of 63rd Jio Filmfare Awards 2018: 

Best Film: "Hindi Medium"

Critics' Award for Best Film: "Newton"

Best Actor In A Leading Role (Female): Vidya Balan for "Tumhari Sulu"

.@vidya_balan grooves to her song before receiving her award for Best Actor (Female) from #Rekha and the #JioFilmfareAwards. pic.twitter.com/Ua6YwCOqcZ

— Filmfare (@filmfare) January 20, 2018

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Best Actor In A Leading Role (Male): Irrfan Khan for "Hindi Medium"

The award for Best Actor (Popular) goes to @irrfank for #HindiMedium. #JioFilmfareAwards pic.twitter.com/dAjwZwdasw

— Filmfare (@filmfare) January 20, 2018

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Critics' Award for Best Actor (Male): Rajkummar Rao for "Trapped"

Critics' Award for Best Actor (Female): Zaira Wasim for "Secret Superstar"

Best Director: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari for "Bareilly Ki Barfi"

Thank-you @filmfare 4 bestowing me with debut best director award in 2016 for #nilbatteysannata & this year for the best director (popular) #bareillykibarfi This truly means a lot in my journey to create & keep dreaming. Rest is destiny. Gratitude for the faith & blessings😃🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/8zBHdd6jkI

— Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari (@Ashwinyiyer) January 21, 2018

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Best Debut Director: Konkona Sensharma for "A Death in the Gunj"

Best Actor In A Supporting Role (Male): Rajkummar Rao for "Bareilly Ki Barfi"

#RanbirKapoor presenting the Best Supporting Actor (Male) to @RajkummarRao for #bareillykibarfi at the #JioFilmfareAwards pic.twitter.com/20BCNdpIwv

— Filmfare (@filmfare) January 20, 2018

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HQ: Ranbir Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao and Alia Bhatt at the #JioFilmfareAwards pic.twitter.com/8a7GgZSAaF

— RanbirKapoor.Net (@RanbirKapoorFC) January 21, 2018

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Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female): Meher Vij for "Secret Superstar"

Best Dialogue: Hitesh Kewalya for "Shubh Mangal Saavdhan"

The award for Best Dialogue goes to #HiteshKewalya for #ShubhMangalSaavdhan. #JioFilmfareAwards pic.twitter.com/UozPcKpCAD

— Filmfare (@filmfare) January 20, 2018

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Best Screenplay: Shubhashish Bhutiani for "Mukti Bhavan"

Best Original Story: Amit Masurkar for "Newton"

Best Actor (Male) in a Short Film: Jackie Shroff for "Khujli"

Best Actor (Female) in a Short Film: Shefali Shah for "Juice"

People's Choice Award for Best Short Film: "Anahut"

Best Short Film (Fiction): "Juice"

Best Short Film (Non-Fiction): "Invisible Wings"

Best Music Album: Pritam for "Jagga Jasoos"

Best Playback Singer (Male): Arijit Singh for 'Roke na ruke naina' - "Badrinath Ki Dulhania"

Best Playback Singer (Female): Meghna Mishra for 'Nachdi phira' - "Secret Superstar"

Best Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya for 'Ullu ka pattha' - "Jagga Jasoos"

Lifetime Achievement Award: Mala Sinha and Bappi Lahiri

Best Choreography: Vijay Ganguly and Ruel Dausan Varindani for "Galti se mistake" - "Jagga Jasoos"

Best Background Score: Pritam for "Jagga Jasoos"

Best Action: Tom Struthers for "Tiger Zinda Hai"

The award for Best Action goes to #TomStruthers for #TigerZindaHai. #JioFilmfareAwards pic.twitter.com/HhPdIx4vfc

— Filmfare (@filmfare) January 20, 2018

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Best Cinematography: Sirsha Ray for "A Death In The Gunj"

Best Editing: Nitin Baid for "Trapped"

Best Production Design: Parul Sondh for "Daddy"

Best Sound Design: Anish John for "Trapped"

Best Costume: Rohit Chaturvedi for "A Death In The Gunj"

For some more dose of glamour: 

The gorgeous @ManushiChhillar at #jiofilmfareawards pic.twitter.com/4mCBNfAgZJ

— Femina (@FeminaIndia) January 20, 2018

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Style, glamour sass, red carpet and @sonamakapoor go hand-in-hand at the #JioFilmfareAwards. pic.twitter.com/bhl8HIHxsc

— Filmfare (@filmfare) January 20, 2018

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Pink has never looked so good!@realpreityzinta brightens up the #JioFilmfareAwards red carpet. pic.twitter.com/qqfuQlw0BT

— Filmfare (@filmfare) January 20, 2018

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What a fabulous night... thank you @filmfare #JioFilmfareAwards ... 🌟 pic.twitter.com/EAPmAPBbps

— Neha Dhupia (@NehaDhupia) January 20, 2018

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You can easily guess who this superstar is performing at 63rd #JioFilmfareAwards pic.twitter.com/rfZbwL9M6X

— Raghuvendra Singh (@raghuvendras) January 20, 2018

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The #JioFilmfareAwards red carpet is waiting for you @RanveerOfficial! pic.twitter.com/uw1mtkIGqY

— Filmfare (@filmfare) January 20, 2018

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[visionmpbpl-blog]

New Post has been published on http://www.visionmp.com/hindi-medium-receives-the-best-film-award-while-bappi-lahiri-gets-lifetime-achievement-award/

Irrfan Khan, Vidya Balan win big at 63rd Jio Filmfare Awards

Mumbai: Bollywood came together to celebrate the industry’s talent at 63rd Jio Filmfare Awards 2018, held on Saturday, in Mumbai. Superstar Shah Rukh Khan and filmmaker Karan Johar hosted the event, which witnessed some amazing performances by stars like Akshay Kumar, Ranveer Singh, Ayushmann Khurrana, Parineeti Chopra and others. Sonam Kapoor, R Madhavan, Arjun Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Shahid Kapoor, Saqib Saleem, Preity Zinta, Rekha, Jaya Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit, Kajol, Sunny Leone walked the red carpet.

Irrfan Khan won the Best Actor in a Leading Role (Male) for Hindi Medium while the movie received the Best Film award. Vidya Balan won her sixth Filmfare award for playing a radio jockey in Tumhari Sulu.

  Here’s the complete list of winners.

Best Film: Hindi Medium

Critics’ Award for Best Film: Newton

Best Actor in a Leading Role (Female): Vidya Balan for Tumhari Sulu

Best Actor in a Leading Role (Male): Irrfan Khan for Hindi Medium

Critics’ Award for Best Actor (Female): Zaira Wasim for Secret Superstar

Critics’ Award for Best Actor (Male): Rajkummar Rao for Trapped

Best Director: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari for Bareilly Ki Barfi

Best Debut Director: Konkona Sen Sharma for A Death in the Gunj

Best Actor In A Supporting Role (Male): Rajkummar Rao for Bareilly Ki Barfi

Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female): Meher Vij for Secret Superstar

Lifetime Achievement Award: Bappi Lahiri

Best Dialogue: Hitesh Kewalya for Shubh Mangal Saavdhan

Best Screenplay: Shubhashish Bhutiani for Mukti Bhawan

Best Original Story: Amit Masurkar for Newton

Best Actor (Male) in a Short Film: Jackie Shroff for Khujli

Best Actor (Female) in a Short Film: Shefali Shah for Juice

People’s Choice Award for Best Short Film: Anahut

Best Short Film (Fiction): Juice

Best Short Film (Non Fiction): Invisible Wings

Best Music Album: Pritam for Jagga Jasoos

Best Playback Singer (Male): Arijit Singh for Roke Na Ruke Naina (Badrinath Ki Dulhania)

Best Playback Singer (Female): Meghna Mishra for Nachdi Phira (Secret Superstar)

Best Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya for Dil Ullu Ka Pattha Hai (Jagga Jasoos)

Best Background Score: Pritam for Jagga Jasoos

Best Sound Design: Anish John for Trapped

Best Choreography: Vijay Ganguly and Ruel Dausan Varindani for Galti Se Mistake (Jagga Jasoos)

Best Action: Tom Struthers for Tiger Zinda Hai

Best Cinematography: Sirsha Ray for A Death In The Gunj

Best Editing: Nitin Baid for Trapped

Best Costume: Rohit Chaturvedi for A Death In The Gunj

Best Production Design: Parul Sondh for Daddy

[shiningparadigm]

Thoughts on the iPad Air 2

I’ve had my iPad Air 2 for almost a week now and I think I’ve formed a final opinion of it.

I'm impressed. Very impressed. And given that I upgraded from last year's iPad Air, I didn't expect to be this impressed. Here are my favorite things about it, in increasing order of importance to me:

Touch ID is flawless, as expected. It works pretty much all the time without fail, and it even works when I try unlocking my iPad in landscape mode. I only wish more apps supported it. There are only a few apps that take advantage of Touch ID on the iPhone, and even fewer on the iPad. I use it to buy apps from the App Store, to unlock Day One, and to pay for groceries in Instacart. That's it.

The iPad Air 2 only a few grams lighter than last year's iPad, but it does make an impact. I feel like I can hold the new iPad for longer periods without my arms getting tired. Maybe it's all in my head but my original iPad Air feels thick and heavy now, which is insane given how blown away I was by its size and weight just 12 months ago. (The iPad Air 2 is 18% thinner than the iPad Air, which was 20% thinner than the iPad 4 before it. It's also slightly lighter than the iPad Air which was 28% lighter than the iPad 4 before it.)

As you may know, the iPad Air 2 has 2 GB of RAM which is twice as much as last year's iPad Air and the iPhone 6. This is very, very noticeable. Jason Snell writes at Six Colors:

iOS devices, though, have much less RAM than their Mac counterparts. When an iOS device gets low on memory, it gets aggressive about freeing some back up. This all happens automatically, in the background, and it’s a little like a magic trick—it’s designed so you won’t really notice. But have you ever noticed that sometimes when you open or switch to an app you’ve run recently, it resumes as if it were already open, and other times there’s a splash screen and a few seconds of setup? That’s the magic trick—that app was purged to free up memory for something else. The price you paid for running some other app is that you’ve got to wait while this app gets back in running order, ready to use.

In Safari is where the real magic happens though. I do the vast majority of my research for both school and this website on my iPad and tabs hardly ever need to be reloaded when I switch between them anymore. I noticed this earlier today when my iPad was able to hold not just 4-5 websites but 2-3 large PDF documents in RAM without hiccuping. The iPad Air 2 also has an all-new A8X processor (the iPhone 6 has an A8 processor) and that helps everything run snappier too. Games are also supposed to be better with this processor but I'm a casual iOS gamer at best so I can't really comment on that.

My favorite feature though is the Laminated Display. Apple has eliminated the air gap between the layers of the display — a feature of the iPhone since the iPhone 4 — and this brings the pixels closer to the screen. On the iPad Air's 9.7 inch display this lack of lamination was very noticeable. It's hard to explain without seeing it, but with the iPad Air it felt like you using a touchscreen device while with the iPad Air 2 it feels like you're directly manipulating objects on the screen. The display is also more vibrant with better image quality.

In short, the iPad Air 2 is a fantastic device, and in my opinion the best tablet on the market today. I expected the removal of the Silent Switch to drive me mad, but in reality it's not been a big deal just adjusting it from Control Center. A bigger nuisance to me is that (having gotten used to the new button placement on the iPhone 6) I'm constantly pressing the Volume Up button while trying to lock my iPad.

I do have a bigger problem though. Every time I hold an iPad mini, I can’t help but feel that it’s the device for me. There are so many times when I’m leaving home and all I need is my iPad, but I still need to take a backpack. (I could hold it but Boston is freezing cold most of the year so my hands are firmly in my pockets.)

The iPad mini fits in my inner jacket pocket and would solve that problem, but the Laminated Display and extra RAM of the iPad Air 2 are too important for me to pass on.

Last year the iPad mini and iPad Air were on-par with each other, with the only real difference between them being the size and weight. This year all the focus was on the iPad Air with the iPad mini receiving almost nothing but Touch ID. I’m hoping that next year Apple manages to achieve parity between both iPads again, in which case I’ll most definitely be picking up an iPad mini 4.

[karan301]

'Friends' is coming to Netflix

They will all be there for you, Jan.1, 2015 https://t.co/EdGNWtFsZl

— Netflix US (@netflix)

October 15, 2014

According to the above tweet from Netflix and an announcement at a recent Time Warner investor event, every episode of Friends is coming to Netflix. This is horrible news. I couldn't be more excited.

I used to watch Friends all day every day in Ghana. Not actively — it would be on in the background while I talked to friends and/or pretended to do homework — but it was always on. I've seen every episode multiple times. I know every line of every scene. My obsession is unhealthy.

That's why when I left Ghana, I didn't bring the hard drive that has my collection of Friends with me. I figured I could do with one less distraction. Alas, fate has decided that I must not be productive, so it looks like I'll going to be binge-watching Netflix throughout the Spring 2015 semester. You're all welcome to join me.

Every episode of 'Friends' will be made available on Netflix in the USA and Canada starting January 1, 2015.

(via: The Verge)

[shiningparadigm]

Horace Dediu ran some numbers over at Asymco:

These assumptions result in a cumulative revenue of over $1 billion by 2018 and a yearly run rate of $1 billion in revenue by 2020.

So it looks like Apple Pay is set to become yet another billion dollar business for Apple in a few years' time. And while that might not be a lot of money for Apple — 0.5% of Revenue and 2% of Earnings, as Dediu notes — it's a nice 'little' business to have on the side.

Apple Spotlight nails it on the big picture though:

That’s a nice ‘little’ business, one that many companies would love to have. That said, I see Apple Pay as more of a supporting character. It makes Apple devices even better, keeps Apple ahead of the competition, and supports Apple’s high customer satisfaction levels. These all, of course, drive sales. And that is much more important to Apple than whatever profits Apple Pay generates.

Exactly.

[shiningparadigm]

Betaworks collected information from 1,000 iPhone home screens and posted the information online in an excerpt from Betaworks Shareholders Book. Some of the statistics are pretty interesting. For example:

Twitter related apps are on 85.5 percent of homescreens. Given that the sample was based on Twitter users there’s sample bias to the Twitter number, but despite that there are some interesting conclusions to draw out of the data. Seventy-nine percent have one Twitter app on their homescreen, 6.5 percent have 2 or more and 14 percent have none — presumably these users use Twitter via the browser or an app not on the homescreen. Vine is on 12 percent of people’s homescreens, which is impressive. But Twitter’s client app is only on 37% of homescreens and third-party clients are on a whopping 55 percent of devices, with one client, Tweetbot, making up a full 49.5 percent of the sampled homescreens. It’s remarkable that a non-Twitter owned client has more market share than Twitter’s client. It’s a byproduct of the early adopter sample bias, but I think it points to the fact these users — myself included — prefer using a different, and more advanced, workflow for Twitter.

Tweetbot is a fantastic Twitter client, and you should get it. Check out the rest of the article for more, including stats on Yahoo and Microsoft's apps. 

[shiningparadigm]

Ben Brooks argues that you should leave your Read Receipts on, and I agree.

Apart from the obvious — knowing whether a message has been read or not — it saves time: my favorite thing about having my Read Receipts on is I never have to say "Yeah," "Cool," "Thanks," or any of those 'confirmation messages' because the person sending the text can see that I've read it.

And, like Ben says:

The only reason you don’t have them on is because you want to delay your response, or “hide”. Get over it. Or just unlock your phone and pull down notification center — that will allow you to read messages without sending the read receipt.

Exactly. Now go enable them.

You can enable Read Receipts by going to Settings > Messages > Send Read Receipts on an iOS device, or by going to Messages > Preferences > Accounts > Send Read Receipts on an OS X device.

[shiningparadigm]

Gorilla Glass 4

Corning, long-time Apple supplier of the Gorilla Glass found in iPhones, announced Gorilla Glass 4 recently.

Corning says that the new Gorilla Glass 4 has been "formulated to address consumers’ No. 1 issue – screen breakage from everyday drops." If you watch the video below, you'll see that Corning have worked on reducing damage from real-world drops such as 1m drops on to asphalt with great results, citing:

Gorilla Glass 4 is up to two times tougher than competitive glasses

Gorilla Glass 4 survives up to 80 percent of the time

Soda-lime glass, as deployed in today’s commercial devices, breaks nearly 100 percent of the time.

One of the biggest complaints I get from friends about their iPhones is cracked screens. Hopefully this helps stop that in the near future. Check out the video below for more.

[shiningparadigm]

"Get" Replaces "Free" on the App Store

The App Store changed a couple of times today. Free apps are now no longer displayed as "Free," assumably to comply with an EU ruling that it's misleading to say an app is free when it might offer In-App Purchases.

At first, Apple went through and replaced the word "Free" with "Get" all over the App Store, which made very little sense. Thankfully, a few hours later, Apple decided to just remove the "Get" label as well from the Featured page. You can check out the progression below.

The "Get" button still shows when you need to download the app, which makes sense.

I personally preferred the way things were, but hiding the "Get" button from the Featured page is a lot better than what Apple initially rolled out, so I'll settle for this.

[shiningparadigm]

Apple released iOS 8.1.1 earlier today citing bug fixes and performance improvements for the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. I thought it was just a minor, routine update, but Federico Viticci of MacStories pointed a few things out:

What Apple doesn't specifically address in their release notes are two welcome fixes that people who use iOS devices extensively will likely notice: the order of action and share extensions in the system share sheet now sticks across apps and app relaunches; and, the iCloud hanging/crashing bug appears to be gone.

Previously, if you rearranged the order of action and share extensions in system share sheet, the ordering would be reverted when the app was relaunched, which was very annoying. That's mostly fixed now. 

In addition to that, many users had been reporting major iCloud issues with iOS 8.1, and it looks like those have been fixed.

iOS 8 has brought a ton of new features but as many bugs as I can remember in an official Apple OS release. Hopefully these little updates continue to squash them.

[shiningparadigm]

Introducing Snapcash

Snapchat just partnered with Square Cash to bring to us Snapcash. This is a big deal. I recently wrote about why Square Cash is the best way to transfer money to friends, and Snapchat's integration is so seamless it complements the service perfectly.

Once you set up the service by linking your debit card, all you have to do is swipe right to enter a chat window with a friend and type a dollar amount (such as "$15"). Snapchat recognizes that this is a money transfer transaction, the send button becomes a green cash button, and your money is sent. Best of all, your information is stored with Square, not Snapchat, so you don't have to worry about trusting Snapchat with sensitive data.

The benefits of Square all apply: your money is automatically deposited to your bank account without you having to transfer/deposit 'credits' to your account, as with Venmo and PayPal.

Square was already the best way to send and receive money. You don't need an app to use it (it works with email) but the email hack has always been a little confusing for normal users. Now with Snapchat integration, almost anyone can use Square. (Provided you live in the United States and have a Visa or MasterCard debit card.)

Watch the (very annoying) video before to see how it works, and then cringe at all the pointless singing and dancing.

Snapcash is already out for Snapchat users on Android, with an iOS update expected to roll out later today.

Update: Snapchat 8.0 is out now, and you can grab it here. Unfortunately it's still not optimized for the iPhone 6.

[shiningparadigm]

Notifications in iOS

While iOS has gotten a lot of things right over the years, handling notifications hasn’t been one of them.

A brief history

When the iPhone was introduced in 2007 with iOS 1, other than a few system apps such as Messages and Mail, apps didn’t need to notify you as there was no App Store at the time. This allowed the iPhone to get by with a basic, obtrusive notifications system.

With iOS 2 in 2008, Apple introduced the App Store which, as we know, took off in a big way. This wasn’t much of a problem at first, until iOS 3 the following year when Apple allowed App Store apps to send Push Notifications. All of a sudden there were a lot more apps trying to notify you of things: Facebook wanted you to know when someone commented on your picture, Twitter wanted you to know when you were mentioned in a tweet, etc.

As more and more apps became available on the App Store, and more and more apps wanted to notify you of things, notifications on iOS became a joke compared to Palm and Android. iOS 4 did nothing to help.

Finally, with iOS 5 in 2011, Apple revamped iOS’ notifications system. Banner Notifications replaced Pop-Up Notifications by default, and a Notification Center was added to collate all unread notifications. Although these features were borrowed from Android, it’s hard to remember an iOS before them.

iOS 6 brought Do Not Disturb to silence notifications, and iOS 7 brought visual refinements, but arguably the biggest change to notifications since iOS 5 came this year with iOS 8.

iOS 8 brought Interactive Notifications allowing you to reply messages, mark reminders as complete, favorite a tweet you’re mentioned in, etc. without leaving the app you’re in.

The current state of notifications

Notifications on iOS are currently much, much better than they’ve ever been. I find it hard going back to iOS 7 and actually having to open the Messages app to reply texts, and even harder remembering a time where I had to stop what I was doing to either dismiss or read a text message. However, the system is far from perfect.

Let’s start with the one that’s been pissing off nerds for over 3 years now: the Clear button. In Notification Center, there’s a tiny “x” beside each group of notifications. (One for Messages, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). You tap it and then tap the Clear button to purge that group of notifications. It’s a useful feature but that “x” is way too small. 30% of the time I end up opening a message I was intentionally leaving unread.

The one that gets me the most though is with Interactive Notifications. When you get a text and you pull down on it to reply, when you’re done, if you accidentally tap anywhere between the keyboard and the Send button, that message gets lost forever. Somehow I almost always end up tapping right underneath the Send button. Sure, most of the time these are just quick replies, but it’s really annoying then having to open Messages and rewriting the message. Worse still is thinking you’ve sent the message to realize later that you never actually hit Send.

Another big one that annoys me to no end is Notification Center sync. iOS 5 brought a central place to view all notifications in Notification Center, but those of us with multiple devices often end up with redundant notifications. For example, when I’m mentioned in a tweet, Tweetbot sends me a notification on my iPhone, iPad, and Mac. You’d think opening this notification on my iPhone would clear it from Notification Center on the other devices, but it doesn’t. I later have to manually clear these redundant notifications. I find this absolutely bizarre because iMessage handles this exceptionally well, marking messages as read on all devices when I read it on one, and Apple claimed to bring Notification Center sync in iOS 6, but it never materialized and the problem still exists today — even with Mail.

What about the Today view?

In iOS 7, Apple added a Today view to Notification Center with an overview of your day including the Forecast, your Calendar appointments and Reminders, and a preview of your next day. iOS 8 built upon this by allowing App Store apps to have their own widgets in this view. As great as the Today view is, and I use it all the time, there are a couple of little things that bother me:

First of all, in the Weather app on my iPhone, I’ve set the units to Celsius because I understand it better than I do Fahrenheit. Therefore in the Today view, I get my forecast in Celsius. However, there’s no Weather app on my iPad and my Mac so my forecast comes in Fahrenheit. I would accept this, but my iPad and Mac do know that I prefer Celsius. The Clock app on iPad also tracks the Weather and I have the units changed to Celsius there. On my Mac, in the same Today view, there’s a Weather widget and I have the units changed to Celsius there. It’s a little detail but I don’t enjoy having 2 weather forecasts; one in Fahrenheit and one in Celsius.

The other little thing is that my iPhone now knows where my classes are based on my location every week. This means when I wake up for class in the morning and check the Today view, it tells me: “Right now, it would take you about 5 minutes to drive to Buick St.” That’s great, and it would be pretty useful, except I don’t drive. My phone should know this. If it’s not going to pull the information from the Motion Coprocessor for privacy reasons, I should be able to change the default from Driving Time to Walking Time.

Looking forward

I usually try to avoid coming up with concepts for iOS, but I had an idea the other day that I’d love feedback on.

It started when I was walking in the cold with my phone in my pocket. I had Maps giving me directions to some restaurant in the background. My earphones were in and I was listening to music, and every time Maps needed to notify me of something it would subtly dim the music and tell me what to do. “Take the next right,” for example. It was unobtrusive and felt right.

Then I’d feel my phone vibrate and have absolutely no idea what was going on. Was it a text? An email? A Snapchat? Then it hit me: What if my phone dimmed the music and told me. “New text from John.” “New Twitter notification.” Or it could dim to ringtone for a second, dim that, and say “Incoming call from mom,” and go back to ringtone.

I don’t know if it’s just me but I think this would be a lot more useful than how iOS presents notifications currently.

[shiningparadigm]

Maximize Your Battery

I recently wrote about why you shouldn't quit all your apps, explaining that (contrary to popular belief) it actually worsens battery life. I received lots of feedback leading me to this follow-up post on the best charging practices to maximize your battery. Let's begin.

(Note that I'm using the iPhone as a base here, but these practices apply to pretty much all battery-powered devices, including your iPad and Mac.)

Like all batteries, your iPhone battery will wear down over time. This is normal. However, to keep your battery life as long as possible, you should calibrate your iPhone often. I normally do this once a month.

Steps to Calibrate your Battery

Use your iPhone until it dies.

Plug it in, and charge it up to 100%. Avoid using it while it's plugged in, and make sure the charge isn't interrupted. Leave it plugged in for at least 15 minutes after it hits 100%.

Unplug your iPhone and use it until it dies again. Leave it for at least 15 minutes after it dies.

Repeat Step 2.

As far as I can tell, the best way to maintain your iPhone battery is to charge it every night. Regardless of how often you charge it during the day, plug your phone in every night before going to bed. This constant routine helps keep your iPhone battery active. In addition, try to avoid charging your iPhone for just a few minutes — once you plug it in, leave it plugged for as long as possible.

Some cases generate a lot of heat. If you notice your iPhone gets excessively hot while charging, take it out while charging. Apple says iPhone and iPad work best at 32°F to 95°F (0°C to 35°C). (MacBook works best at 50°F to 95°F (10°C to 35°C).)

So there you have it, three quick tips: calibrate often, charge nightly, and keep cool.

Be sure to check out the links below for more, including Apple's support document on maximizing battery life and lifespan.

Related Reading

"Maximizing Battery Life and Lifespan" by Apple

"iPhone Battery Guide: Charging Your iPhone the Right Way" by Alvaro Bernedo

"The Ultimate Guide to Solving iOS Battery Drain" by Scotty Loveless

"Stop Quitting All Your Apps" by Karan Varindani

[shiningparadigm]

Istanbul Hyperlapse

The Film Artist on Vimeo:

Just a bit of fun, captured and edited on the iPhone 6 Plus in Istanbul whilst on a marvellous once in a lifetime workshop gtimage.com/workshops with the timelapse and hyperlapse guru Geoff Tompkinson himself vimeo.com/gtimage and his brilliant wife Liz. A special thanks to the wonderful people of Turkey and Istanbul for making all feel so welcome and all the other wonderful people that attended the workshop from all around the world, enjoy :)

It's great seeing a phone that I love being used to capture the beauty of a city I frequent. The apps used were Miniatures, Hyperlapse, and iMovie.

See also: Boston Layer-Lapse.

[shiningparadigm]

Transferring Money to Friends

Like a lot of people I know, I rarely ever carry cash on me. My wallet consists of little more than my Credit Card and my ID. Carrying cash isn’t secure, adds bulk, slows down most transactions, and in most cases carrying it is highly unnecessary.

However, I often have to send money to or receive money from friends. I prefer not to give cash because that involves me visiting an ATM to withdraw it, and I prefer not to receive cash because that involves me visiting an ATM to deposit it.

So, I started to think: What’s the best way to transfer money to friends?

There are a few options, but I’ll consider three of the more popular ones in PayPal, Venmo, and Square Cash. (Spoiler: Square Cash is by far the best way. You can skip the rest of this article and just get it now from the App Store, but read on for the details.)

Getting Started

Setting up Square Cash is easy: Go to the Square Cash website and enter your Phone Number to get started setting up your account. They’ll even give you $1 to try it. Alternatively, you can download the iOS app to get started. (PayPal and Venmo have similar sign-up processes, without the $1.)

All three services then require you to enter your Bank Account number. (Your Debit Card number, not your Credit Card.) That’s where money will be taken from, and where money will be deposited to.

Sending and Receiving Money

This is where Square Cash really stands out. From the app, you enter an amount and choose who you want to send it to. You can use a Phone Number or an Email Address. If that number or address is already linked to an account on Square Cash, the money will automatically be deposited to the person’s Bank Account. That’s the difference. With both PayPal and Venmo, the money gets sent to the person’s account as ‘credits’ which can be re-transferred to other people, but Square Cash never holds your money — it’s taken from your account, and sent to your friend’s account.

That little difference makes Square Cash stand out hugely against the competition. There’s no friction. It does one thing, and one thing well: it transfers your money. This simplicity is exemplified when compared with the competition:

PayPal is obviously not just a money transfer service — you also use it to buy and sell products and services — so using the app can be a little confusing. It took me several minutes after receiving PayPal Credits from a friend to figure out how to deposit it to my Bank Account.

Venmo on the other hand is a money transfer service and nothing else, so its unnecessary complexity makes little sense to me. Venmo attempts to make a Social Network out of transferring money; you can add your friends and see, for example, “John paid Matt for Dinner the other night.” Your friends can then like this status. I can’t think of a single situation where this would be necessary. Thankfully, figuring out how to ‘Cash Out’ your money from Venmo to your Bank Account is pretty straightforward and only takes a few taps. Still though, compared to Square Cash, it’s unnecessary friction.

A few more things

Unlike Venmo, Square Cash’s additional features are actually useful.

If you want to send money to someone nearby and you both have the Square Cash app installed and set up, you can just enter the amount and choose the person from the Nearby list. The feature works using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

My absolute favorite feature though is you don’t need an app to use Square Cash. Once your account is set up, sending money is as simple as sending an email from the address your account is registered under. Send the email to whomever is receiving the money, enter the amount in the Subject Field, and cc: cash@square.com. You can optionally add a Note in the body of the email. This is how it looks:

This means I can send money from my iPhone, iPad, or Mac, or any computer with a Web Browser, and I can receive money without doing anything with Square Cash.

In case you’re wondering why I didn’t consider Bank Transfers, it’s because they suck. It’s that simple. Even if you’re transferring money to someone who uses the same bank as you, it’s not as simple as using Square Cash. Take Bank Of America for example: You still have to have the person set up a Transfer Account first, then add them to your Contacts, before you can transfer the money.

Lastly, I should mention that Square Cash has a weekly limit of $2,500, Venmo a weekly limit of $3,000, Bank Of America Transfer a daily limit of $1,000, while PayPal is unlimited for Verified Users. This would be a problem but I was looking for the best way to transfer money to friends, and I rarely have to transfer more than say $20–50.